![]() The further in you go, the less time there is to stand back and say: “OK, hang on, how does the scary electricity-monster thing fit in with the giant mantis thing and the shape-shifting crow things?” Best if you just gulp it down and enjoy the trip. The plentiful servings of Boer history, San mysticism and obscure martial arts are cleverly sprinkled throughout the narrative. It’s beyond far-fetched, but I went along with it all quite effortlessly, perhaps because I’d find real human behaviour a lot less baffling if a bunch of spider-zombies was revealed to be operating beneath the surface.ĭespite there being a lot of mythology to take in, there are no indigestible chunks of it that you must dutifully chew through to get on with the story. Both fictional character and reader are never quite sure where they stand:Ī quick glance around shows we’re in some kind of arachnid-zombie-dominatrix sex dungeon, which, it turns out, is not nearly as cool as it sounds.Īlongside refreshing characters and a carnival-ride of a plot, Human has furnished his Cape Town with a hidden, mystical, filth-ridden underworld of monster porn and insalubrious quasi-human beasts that pull government department strings behind the scenes. In Apocalypse Now Now the boundaries between dark and light, reality and psychosis are constantly being tested and blurred. When we’re sixteen, we dream of being the hero in our own life-story, only in Baxter’s case, he’s starting to worry that he might just turn out to be the villain. Through him, we’re plugged directly into that buried part of ourselves that remembers what teenage-dom is actually like: a constricted little world that spins on a hunger for power and attention, a constant, unfulfilled craving for revenge at each humiliating injustice, and a yearning to be connected to something big, something important. Perhaps it’s the finely-crafted character of Baxter that makes this debut novel such an absorbing read. Believing her to have been kidnapped, possibly by the notorious Mountain Killer who’s stalking the streets of Cape Town, Baxter follows a trail of peculiar clues until he finds himself in the dubious company of Ronin, an alcohol-fuelled, sword-wielding “supernatural bounty hunter” with diabetes. The tale is narrated by the cynical, instantly likeable sixteen-year-old Baxter Zevcenko who takes time out from selling porn to the kids at school and tormenting his autistic brother in order to rescue the girl he thinks he might just be in love with. Bless the rains down in Africa all you want, old people, I’m going to get some real action. ![]() There’s no more screaming which means they’ll probably end up having gross middle-aged sex to a song by Toto and won’t leave their room for the rest of the night. My parents are in their room attempting to put a Band-Aid on the third degree burn that is their marriage. It offers a perfect antidote to the flaccid role that the B-grade horror monsters of old have been forced to play in much of today’s fiction. ![]() The world he invents is edgy, weird, and steeped in obscure South African history. His concise, unfussy writing style, riotous dialogue and sharply drawn characters ensure that, however implausible, you’re only too happy to go along for the ride.ĭrawing on (or rather, scribbling wild black crayon all over) the market’s apparently bottomless need for stories featuring sanitized teen romance with vapid occult beings, Human creates a mythology of his own that’s just the right blend of delightful and disgusting. However, in his debut novel, Apocalypse Now Now, Charlie Human deftly convinces us that they’re part of an intricate plot to bring about the end of the world. What do a Boer trekker girl, a serial killer, and a giant mechanical octopus have in common? Well nothing, obviously. ![]()
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